


They Rise Shields Up

by LilacsandFreedom



Category: Final Fantasy XIV
Genre: Angst, Blood, Blood and Violence, Gen, Gender-Neutral Pronouns, Haurchefangst, I'd say canon compliant but it's been a long time since I did HW and I just really liked this idea, Patch 2.0: A Realm Reborn Spoilers, Patch 3.0: Heavensward Spoilers, Post-Vault (Final Fantasy XIV), also includes cross-fandom references, either way yes it's Haurchefant angst, so I might have some details wrong, the Warrior of Light has a bit of a Moment
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-15
Updated: 2019-07-15
Packaged: 2020-06-29 04:34:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,116
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19822633
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LilacsandFreedom/pseuds/LilacsandFreedom
Summary: "Has anyone seen the warrior of light?"Concerned for his friend after the events of the Vault, Alphinaud goes out into the Coerthan winter to find them. The wind carries strange sounds of song and battle...





	They Rise Shields Up

“Has anyone seen the warrior of light?”

It had been a question that Alphinaud continued to ask to no avail. This, he believed, was a very bad thing. He’d seen the warrior after the Vault, yes. They were very stoic. Maybe too stoic. Empty, almost. It reminded him of how he’d felt after the disaster of the Crystal Braves and the coup against the Sultana.

So he’d been asking after them for most of the day. Healer as they were, he first asked after them around the infirmary. Perhaps, he thought, they might be tending to the wounded, or tending to their own wounds. But, Ser Aymeric was in no condition to talk, and certainly not to answer questions. That aside, it might have caused far more harm than good to ask him about the warrior after…

He asked around the rest of the city then. The Astrologicum, the Brume, the Manufactury, the Jeweled Crozier, the Fortemps manor, the Forgotten Knight, each and every place he could think of, and in each and every place they were nowhere to be found. Eventually, however, he heard word of a warrior ( _the_ warrior?) stepping out into the snowy fields, a strange look on their face.

So of course, he ran after them.

He thought it almost lucky that Coerthas’ climate changed so drastically after the calamity. Against the pure white of the snow, it was easy to find a trail of blood. With fear in his heart, Alphinaud followed it until on the wind he heard combat, cries, and...something else. He was certain it was a voice. It sounded almost like singing.

_All the little angels rise up, rise up…_

He held his coat tightly in the ever more bitter cold. There was something in his heart, but he couldn’t quite place it.

_All the little angels rise up high…_

It...sounded like the warrior of light. He thought so, at least. He’d never heard them sing before, and certainly not this odd tune.

_How do they rise up, rise up, rise up, how do they rise up, rise up high…?_

The wind carried the sound, the voice strangely soft and clear at once, mixed with the death cries of beasts. The blood grew thicker the closer he came. And eventually, he saw them.

“They rise heads up, heads up, heads up, they rise _heads up!_ Heads up high!”

With one swing of the warrior’s greatsword, a wolf’s head soared into the air and landed not too far from Alphinaud’s feet. Standing in relative safety behind a tree, he couldn’t bring himself to speak as he watched.

They continued singing. “All the little angels rise up, rise up…”

A strange aura surrounded them. It was not an evil thing, not necessarily. But, it was dark, he could tell, and it was festering within and without them. He saw too the growing pile of corpses.

“They rise hearts up, hearts up, hearts up, they rise _hearts up_ , hearts up high!”

Alphinaud wasn’t sure what creature in its right mind would dare continue to approach them like that, but something about their aura was drawing them in. They impaled one and continued to plunge the blade into its chest long after it was dead.

The song sounded something like an army song. Something of a march. Something to be sung in times when sanity was held by a single thread. “All the little angels…”

The blood soaked their armor. They had no helmet. Alphinaud was almost afraid to look at their face.

Finally, the beasts seemed to get the message. Only one wolf remained in the attempted assault. The song lost its melody. “They rise _shields up! shields up! shields up…!_ ”

And the battle was over.

“They rise shields up, shields up high…”

There was a stillness. “All the little angels…”

Carefully, Alphinaud began his approach. “A-are you alright?”

He winced. He could almost hear his sister now, _You saw them doing that and said what?!_ But, the warrior stopped. Greatsword still in hand, they turned. Their face was smeared with blood and tears. Their breath shook. The aura was gone now, and some peace returned in its absence.

“Alphinaud.” they said.

“Y-yes, um…” he hated to be at a loss for words. “We should bring you to a chirurgeon, my friend. You must be injured after today, please, let us tend to your wounds.”

They swallowed hard and, in the blink of an eye, the black armor and blade vanished, replaced by a robe and cane of purest white and deepest red. “Yes, we must tend to the wounded. You’re right,” they said.

“Forgive me, Alphinaud,” they continued, “I needed to be alone. Let’s go back. Let’s walk back.”

They walked side-by-side, with Alphinaud at a comforting, yet cautious distance. He heard them humming the same tune over and over again. “What...what is that?”

“It’s a song I learned a very long time ago,” they said, “I haven’t felt the need to sing it for just as long.”

“I see…”

There was a quiet.

“My friend, I’m...I’m sorry. But, there wasn’t anything we could do.”

“I know.”

They clutched their cane tighter.

“Believe me, I know." they said. "I tried.”

More quiet.

Alphinaud opened and closed his mouth, but found that no words left it.

The warrior spoke suddenly. “We have no time,” they said, “That’s why-- you understand-- why I needed to take this moment. We have no time for it. I have no time for it. There are wounds to be mended and monsters to slay. How is Aymeric?”

He was almost afraid to answer. He didn’t like the look in their eyes. “Ser Aymeric is...alive.”

“If he refuses my help I will force my way to his sickbed, I hope he understands that.”

“I don’t think he’s in much condition to refuse or accept anything…”

They walked faster.

He thought it almost lucky that Coerthas suffered from such terrible winters. The incoming storm covered up the blood-soaked snow and corpses. By the time they returned to the city, it seemed almost as if nothing had happened. The warrior of light retained a stoic certainty about them, an endless determination that they were so known for.

The warrior of light didn’t look anyone in the eyes, nor did they so much as pause in their march into the city. Their voice, however, regained at least some of its warmth.

“Alphinaud, please be careful. Stay with the others. I won’t run off again, I promise.”

He nodded and bid them farewell as they continued on, murmuring under their breath.

_All the little angels, rise up, rise up, all the little angels rise up high..._

**Author's Note:**

> I found it too much fun to write with XIV's world and characters, so I wrote more! I'd like to write more fic in the future too, but I'm not sure how I'd like to go about it. I'm considering the possibility of including an outright OC WoL. I mean, I guess technically all WoLs are OCs if you give them spoken dialogue, but you get what I mean, right? Eh, I'll figure it out.
> 
> And you needn't be an observant reader to notice my blatant grafting of "All the little angels" from Terry Pratchett's "Night Watch". I saw that a quest from Stormblood shared the name, and when presented an opportunity to put in a reference to "Night Watch" myself, I simply couldn't resist. But, it fits, doesn't it? And listen, my WoL is named Lady Ramkin, my username is LilacsandFreedom, certainly, you should know that if I find an opportunity to reference "Night Watch", by god, I will reference "Night Watch".
> 
> Thanks for reading!


End file.
